


Couldn't Have Done It Better

by lanalucy



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Cunnilingus, Episode: s01e10 The Hand of God, F/M, Fade to Black, Kissing, Laughter During Sex, Making Out, Season/Series 01, Sleepy Cuddles, Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-18
Updated: 2014-11-18
Packaged: 2018-02-25 13:11:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2622992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanalucy/pseuds/lanalucy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: If you want a proper thank you, you probably shouldn't drink too much of that.</p><p>(I don't remember what comm the prompt came from, but it's an old one)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Couldn't Have Done It Better

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my lovely betas, newnumbertwo and laura_mayfair. You gals rock!

Lee was high on the success of the tylium run - he’d pulled a Starbuck move, and had lived to tell about it. He’d tossed that bomb in exactly the right place and known, even as he’d flown away from it, it had been a perfect hit. Everybody wanted to congratulate him, but if he was honest, he really only wanted the approval of two people.

Here came Kara, leaning on her cane maybe a tiny bit too much, but under her own steam, and she had a gigantic grin on her face. “Apollo, you magnificent bastard! That was one hell of a piece of flying, and I couldn’t have done it better myself.”

Lee laughed and hugged Cally. “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “I said...I couldn’t have done it better myself.”

He clinked his bottle against hers. “Well, thank you.”

They stood gazing at each other for a moment or two, then Kara flicked her eyes at the bottle he was draining, and said, “If you want a proper thank you later, you probably shouldn’t drink too much of that.”

He stared at her, not sure he’d heard her right, watched her tongue trace over her lips, then plugged the bottle and shook it, spraying whatever was left of its contents all over Chief Tyrol’s flight deck in a blatantly sexual display.

She watched with a manic grin to match his, then sobered. “I had my doubts.”

“So did I. I wasn’t sure that crazy-ass plan of yours could even possibly work.”

She gave him a mocking haha, then offered him what had to be one of her last cigars. “You deserve this.”

He took it, bit off the end and spit it across the deck, and used Grandpa Joe’s lighter to light it, imagining exactly what kind of proper “thank you” he was likely to get from Kara as he puffed the cigar to life. He caught sight of his dad over Kara’s shoulder, squeezed the lighter and tossed it to the Old Man, who nodded approvingly.

He looked back at Kara, whose eyes were locked somewhere below his waist, and closed his eyes, puffing on the cigar until he was jostled from two sides at once. More voices were congratulating him, people pushing Kara away. She rolled her eyes at the crowd of women and turned to make her way off the flight deck. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kara walked away from Lee, knowing he was watching her. If she hadn’t been injured, she’d probably have put some extra swagger in her step, but then again, if she hadn’t been injured, she would have made the run herself, and everything would have been different. She had no idea what had made her offer to thank him personally - doing this would erase some invisible barrier she and Lee had always purposely kept between them, at least after that disastrous first night. They could flirt and eyefrak and shoot innuendoes at each other, all the while knowing they weren’t taking it seriously. She didn’t know whether to hope he’d take her up on it, or hope he would forget she’d said anything.

He was the man of the hour, though; he’d have his pick - she’d bet if the President thought she could get away with it, she’d frak him within an inch of his life to show her gratitude, and Lee wouldn’t think twice about taking her up on it. Hell, he’d deserve it for getting this tylium for the fleet. Now that she thought about it, there was no reason for Lee to come find her - there’d be plenty of offers tonight, and none of them would come with an injured knee or the baggage she and Lee had in their mutual skeleton closet.

She sighed. She’d managed to think her way to Senior Pilots’ quarters. She yanked the hatch open, went to her locker and stripped to a tank and panties, taking the brace off and shoving it in her locker. She made her way to her rack and tucked her cane under the edge of her mattress so it would be handy when she woke up. For now, she was alone in here, so she pulled out her idols, unwrapped them, and sent her thanks to the gods for the successful mission, for the few lives lost, for letting Lee have his moment of glory. After putting them away, she pulled her curtain across, rolled onto her belly, hugged her pillow and drifted through the hazy twilight into sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lee was more than a little disappointed to find Kara asleep in her rack, though he had to admit the view of her in her panties and a tank was pretty spectacular. Asleep, all her sharpest edges were softened, and she was much more like the woman his brother had loved. The woman _he’d_ fallen in love with.

He left her curtain partially open and went to get ready for bed. He took his time, even going so far as to hit the head, so most everyone would be in their bunks. When he came back, the few open curtains were on empty bunks - probably more than few people celebrating the successful op with someone special, or whoever was most handy at the moment. He took one last look around and crawled into Kara’s bunk, pulling the curtain shut behind him.

He just laid there for a few minutes, head propped on his hand, taking in the even sound of her breathing and the scent enclosed in her rack. He leaned over to kiss her shoulder. Kara grumbled in her sleep, and he smiled to himself.

He flattened his palm on the small of her back - he’d never had a chance to touch her like this, when she was still. She so rarely was. She was solid steel covered by silky velvet. He snorted in the twilight of her rack at his ridiculous poetic notions.

“Lee?” Her voice was soft and sleepy.

“Yeah.”

“Mmm.” She reached behind her and pulled his hand around her, pressing his open palm to her ribs.

He thought maybe she’d gone right back to sleep, but she rolled to her side, facing him. “You okay?”

He fumbled for her hand, twined their fingers together. “Yeah, Kara. I’m okay.” If she had forgotten her offer, he wasn’t going to remind her.

“You come to cuddle, Lee?” He could hear the slight smile, the sarcasm.

Then again…”Well, my favorite pilot did offer me a proper thank you earlier.”

He wasn’t sure if she grunted or laughed. “Did she? Maybe she thought you’d find a better offer than a cranky pilot with a bum knee.”

He found her arm in the darkness, skimmed his hand up to her shoulder, then her jaw. He cupped her chin and kissed her softly, chastely. “No way there’s a better offer aboard this tub than a cranky pilot with a bum knee.”

She wrapped her arm around his neck and kissed him back. Then she molded her body around his and tucked her head under his chin. “In a minute.”

When he heard Kara snoring a few seconds later, he wrapped her tighter and closed his eyes, laughing at himself. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kara’s bladder pinged her awake, and she tried to roll toward the edge of her rack, but she was trapped under a tree. She pushed against it, starting to panic, and the next breath brought Lee. Right, Lee. Lee was in her rack. She relaxed her arms.

He groaned as he stretched. “Kara? What’s wrong?”

“Need to hit the head, Lee. Go back to sleep.”

“You need help?” He pushed her curtain aside.

“Been going to the bathroom by myself for more than twenty years, Lee.” She sat there for a moment, trying to figure out how to get out of her rack without climbing across Lee, because that wouldn’t be awkward at all, would it?

In one of those moments of telepathy she never understood, he rolled out, grabbed her cane, _and how did he know where I’d stashed it?_ and held his hand out to her. She bit her lip and held on, letting him guide her out. She bounced on the ball of her good foot until she had the cane in hand, then turned to make her way to the head. “Just go back to sleep, Lee,” she muttered over her shoulder.

When she got back, Lee looked asleep, but when she clattered a little shoving the cane back under the edge of her rack, he opened his eyes and smiled at her, holding the covers up for her like they slept in the same rack all the time. And wasn’t that a tempting thought.

She crawled in and he laid against the wall until she’d gotten comfortable, then reached out and scooped them together. He moved her hair and kissed the side of her neck and she thought he was taking her up on her offer, until his lips glided over her ear and he said, “Go back to sleep. You need your rest.”

She turned her face into the pillow and fell back to sleep smiling.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kara had turned onto her stomach in her sleep, and her tank was gone. He didn’t question his good luck. Except hadn’t she been on the outside of the bunk? He must be losing it. Lee was on his side, his left hand gliding up and down her back in barely-there strokes. She was so soft. Touch. Not much of it since the worlds had ended. Kara touched him, but they were almost always in some version of their uniforms, and gods he missed skin to skin touching! Not sex so much, just someone touching him without a reason. Not that he would turn down sex. He wasn’t an idiot.

Even if Kara didn’t wake up, he could be happy he had this. His hand on her skin, just touching her. He bent to kiss her shoulder, down her back. Her scent had haunted his memories in the years since they’d met. He opened his mouth to taste her.

Kara sighed, her skin rising and falling under his touch. “Feels good, Lee.” She purred the words more than said them.

“It does.” He pulled back, leaving just his fingertips on her skin - up, down, back, forth. It was mesmerizing.

She turned her head toward him. “I miss this.”

He smiled to himself. “Me, too.” He trailed a finger down her cheek. She waited until it was at her mouth and she turned a bit and kissed it. Opened her mouth and sucked the tip in. His cock twitched.

Kara wiggled closer and rubbed her cheek on the arm holding his head up. “More.” Succinct. Not quite a demand. He straightened his arm and Kara laid her head on it. The fingertips of his other hand touched every inch of her he could reach. She rumbled in her throat and sighed with pleasure and Lee listened avidly to every sound.

When his hand rested, flat and warm just below her waist, she quivered. He bent his mouth to her ear and said, “More?”

“No.”

He’d told himself if touching her was all he got, he could go away happy. At that precise moment, he’d meant it, but right now, he had to push away disappointment.

Then Kara turned. To her side, to her back, his hand resting in the same spot, just below her navel. “Now more.”

“How much more?” _What a stupid question,_ his cock admonished him. _She said more, give her more, you moron._

Kara’s body lifted under his hand, and she wriggled and contorted until her panties were somewhere in the bottom of her rack. “More.”

While his cock was doing a celebratory dance, Lee steadied his hand, forced himself to keep his touch light and easy. He mostly avoided her breasts, but when he skirted the sides, he felt the shiver in her skin. Her ribs expanded and contracted, slowly and steadily at first, then faster.

Kara turned her head, hot breath puffing on his jaw. He leaned closer, his face still aimed out over her back. Kara’s lips hit his cheek and held there. His hand travelled back up her hip, her side, and Kara opened her mouth, kissing his jaw. When his hand halted at her breast, she whispered, “Yes.”

Using just his fingertips, he explored the contours of both breasts, teasing her with the soft touch and easy glide of constant motion. He let his fingers brush down across her belly and back up, then up over her clavicle to her jaw. He turned his head. Her breath mingled with his until she sucked in a breath and held it. He pushed that tiny bit closer and kissed her, light and lingering, their lips sliding with purposeful laziness. 

Lee skimmed his fingers back down over her belly, across Kara’s mound, and down to her knee. He wrapped his hand around her thigh, squeezing a little, then pulled her knee up. He teased the back and inside of her thigh as he kissed her, and smiled a little when she moaned softly and let her leg fall against his, leaving herself open to him.

He pulled back just a little bit, waiting for her to open her eyes. When she was looking at him, he asked, “More?”

Kara bit her lip and nodded.

Lee smiled at her. “How much more?”

“Lee, I’m naked. What do you think?”

He had to laugh at the pique in her voice. He kissed her to keep the sound in her rack. Kept kissing her, touching her, because he loved the noises she made - the little sighs, the tiny almost inaudible grunts, the way she breathed his name when his fingers glided down between her legs. He couldn’t lie to himself, he’d fantasized about Kara, in all kinds of situations, but he’d never imagined she was so…quietly responsive. It was so unlike her ass-kicking viper pilot persona.

He flicked his tongue over her jaw, sucked at her clavicle, and kissed his way down her chest, watching her face. Kara seemed to be holding her breath, and when he touched the tip of his tongue to her nipple, she bit her bottom lip. When he sucked gently, she hummed. He’d never heard that sound from her before. He let go, blew on her breast. “You taste good.”

She looked down at him with one eye. “Soap, Lee. Just soap and recycled water.”

He shook his head. “You.”

“We gonna do this, or are you gonna slobber all over me for an hour?”

He thought she was trying to deflect his tenderness. She’d never been comfortable with it, even with Zak. So even though she probably couldn’t see it, he grinned at her, bent and nipped at her belly.

“Oh!”

Maybe he’d never get another chance, but he added _likes to be bitten_ to his mental file about Kara Thrace, just in case. He scooted in the rack, kissing his way down until he was between her legs. He pulled at her lips with his mouth, then bared his teeth and let go. “I’m gonna slobber all over you for an hour.”

“Oh, frak.”

Lee almost didn’t recognize the laugh coming out of him: low and flirty and sexy. Kara’s smell was immediately more intense. Did she respond that way to his voice all the time? He pushed Kara’s good knee up and wrapped his arms around her hips, attacking her labia and clit with gentle fervor. The skin under his hands goosebumped. He wondered how many times he could make her come, and what she’d look like when she did.

Kara tasted good. Sharp and tangy? He wasn’t sure what the flavor was, but he liked it. He could get used to this. And maybe they’d been running from the cylons for too long and his mind was playing tricks on him, but she smelled like a bakery, and that was possibly the stupidest thing he’d ever thought. Considering all the stupid things he’d thought about Kara, that was saying something.

“Lee?”

“Hmm?” He looked up. Her fingers were clenched in the sheet, fists tight.

“Wasn’t I supposed to be thanking you?”

Lee laughed softly. “This isn’t your way of saying thank you, Kara?”

“Please?”

He wasn’t sure what she was asking, and he kept going. It took him a minute to realize she’d kept saying, “Please,” in ever-decreasing decibel levels, until now she was barely mouthing the word. At the moment he recognized that, he also felt the way her thighs were trembling around him.

He kissed her one more time and scooted up. “Hey. What’s wrong, Kara?”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

Lee felt panic stirring in his gut. “What, Kara? Do you want me to stop?”

“Too much.”

Lee very carefully moved, laid on his side with space between them. “What’s too much? Did I do something you didn’t want?”

She put her hands over her face. “Oh, gods. It’s so stupid.”

“What is, Kara? Talk to me.” He resisted the urge to touch her.

She kept one hand over her eyes, and said, “I’m used to doing it myself.”

He rolled that around in his brain. “You mean getting off?”

She nodded.

“Am I doing it wrong?”

She shook her head.

“I’m doing it right?”

She nodded her head, and he let himself smile. At least he hadn’t lost his touch. But this was Kara. He needed to understand what was going on. He leaned closer. “If I’m doing it right, what’s wrong, Kara?”

She turned toward him suddenly, and they were pressed together from chest to knee. She fumbled for his arm and pulled it around her, then put her head on his other arm.

“Kara?”

She followed the planes of his body with her hand, palming his cock. “I’m used to doing it myself.” She squeezed him, and his hips jerked. “It feels different when someone else does it.” She kept up the pressure and he wished she’d never stop at the same time he wanted her to slow down because it was going to be over too soon.

 _Oh_. Too much.

He put his hand down to stop her, then turned their hands around so she was touching herself. “So I’ll keep going, and you redirect me when it gets too intense. Will that work?”

She didn’t say anything.

Gods, he hoped she wasn’t changing her mind. They’d been dancing around this for months, and if this went badly, she might never let him this close again. “Please, Kara?”

Her “Okay” was so soft, he almost didn’t hear it. He leaned his head over hers, kissed up her cheek to her ear. “I’m going back to slobbering all over you now.”

Kara gasped.

He smiled to himself. Keeping ‘less intensity’ in mind, he went slow, varying his attention from her thighs to her clit to the unexpectedly soft skin of her belly, and back again. He didn’t know how long he’d been eating her when he felt her fingers in his hair. Soft, playing at first, and he took that as a cue to focus more on getting her off. He relished the way her fingers dug into his scalp harder and harder, finally holding him in place until she trembled through her climax, a short squeak her only sound.

He went back to slow kisses on her skin until she fumbled for his face, accidentally sticking her finger in his mouth. He licked her finger, then bit down softly.

“Gods, Lee.” The whisper filled the enclosed space.

He worked his way back up in the rack, making sure he was on her left side. He tucked her hair away from her face. “Definitely a thank you I’d like to get again.”

“How you gonna top blowing up a cylon refinery, Lee?”

He shrugged.

She rolled toward him, wincing a little when her bad knee bent too much, and ran a finger slowly down his nose, landing on his mouth. “You did a good job, Lee. I couldn’t have done it better myself.”

“Unless you can bend in ways I don’t know about, you couldn’t have done it yourself at all,” he teased.

“Oh, frak off, Lee. I’m trying to thank you here.”

“You’re welcome.”

“We gonna frak now, or what?”

He couldn’t help but laugh.

She smacked her hand over his mouth. “Gods, Lee. Shut up!”


End file.
